“Achieving these objectives is integral to meet our goals for sustainable development,"El señor. Guterres stressed, underscoring the importance of protecting, restoring and ensuring access to ecosystems to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger: Goals 1 y 2 of what are known as the Sustainable Development Goals (AGDR).

To mitigate climate change, he notes that deforestation and land degradation must be reduced while at the same time, enhancing carbon stocks in forests, drylands, rangelands and croplands.

He said it was also critical to protect the biodiversity of forests and watersheds to support clean and plentiful water supplies.

“The answer is to intensify efforts and build on successes,” stated Mr. Gutteres. He explained that in 2018, Parties to the Convention will begin work on a new action plan to ensure that, por 2050, biodiversity is preserved to the best of our abilities.

“The entire world needs to join this effort,” he emphasized: “I urge governments, businesses and people everywhere to act to protect the nature that sustains us. Our collective future depends on it,” concluded the Secretary-General.

In her message, Cristiana Paşca Palmer, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB), noted that biodiversity is at the heart of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

Its decline compounds other challenges, incluido el cambio climático, water and food security, and public health, which “can potentially lead to catastrophic outcomes for human existence on this planet,” she warned.

“We have two more years to go to redouble our efforts, […] to design a new deal for nature that will take us from 2020 to the middle of this century,"Dijo, añadir: “We don’t have much time. But we have a lot of power if we work together, in a collaborative manner to change the way we use nature and biodiversity.

Martha Rojas-Urrego, Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, drew attention to wetlands as being among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth – from which almost all freshwater supplies are drawn.

For his part, David Morgan, from the UN-administered Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), reiterated that “biodiversity loss has an enormous impact on our planet, for both the natural environment and human beings.”

“Safeguarding biodiversity is among the key elements of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (AGDR),", Dijo.

“While we are still facing tremendous challenges, with the political will of the world’s governments, we can protect the world’s biological diversity,” he asserted, affirming CITES’ continued collaboration with CBD “to save our common heritage for this and future generations.”

Sr.. Guterres spelled out: “We must use all our resources to build a sense of urgency”, to raise ambition, while keeping temperature rises in the years ahead, as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.

While the 30-member independent International Energy Agency estimates that 2017 investments in renewable electricity amounted to $242 millones de dólares, dijo el jefe de la ONU, that was still far less than the funds invested in new fossil fuel development. Billions of dollars more needs to be invested in renewables if we are to see a “full-scale transition to clean energy” by 2020, said Mr. Guterres.

Moreover, algunos 75 per cent of the infrastructure needed by 2050 has still not been built.

“But,", Añadió, “it does not have to be that way,” pointing to solar, wind and cutting-edge technologies, such as electric vehicles or energy from algae in the ocean, which promises a new era of clean air.

“Let’s join a race to the top, a race where there are only winners,” concluded the Secretary-General.

“Their epic journeys inspire people of all ages, across the globe,"Continuó, añadir: “World Migratory Bird Day is an opportunity to celebrate the great natural wonder of bird migration – but also a reminder that those patterns, and ecosystems worldwide, are threatened by climate change.”

Migratory birds fly hundreds and thousands of kilometres, along historic routes, to find the best habitats available for feeding, breeding and raising their young. The perilous journeys involve a wide and diverse array of threats.

Of the 11,000-bird species on the planet, one-in-five is considered migratory. Forty per cent of them are in decline, with one-in-eight under threat of global extinction. Major threats include habitat-loss and degradation, caused by agricultural and coastal development; collision with badly placed wind turbines and powerlines; unsustainable harvesting, and illegal killing and taking.

“Migratory birds are under threat from every corner: they are losing their habitats, subjected to illegal killing and suffering from the impacts of climate change,"Dijo Erik Solheim, Director Ejecutivo del Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente, PNUMA, adding that we all have a responsibility to “save such a precious component of the natural world.”

By protecting them, we protect our planet.

Key supporters and partners globally, are adamant that successful migratory bird conservation can only be achieved through a united effort.

Beginning this year, World Migratory Bird Day will be observed annually each May and October, to coincide with the cycle of migration, making it possible to organize events in countries around the world at peak migration times.

]]>UN forum to coordinate global efforts to address worsening water shortageshttp://cranegroupintl.com/un-forum-to-coordinate-global-efforts-to-address-worsening-water-shortages/ Tue, 08 Mayo 2018 02:00:55 +0000http://cranegroupintl.com/un-forum-to-coordinate-global-efforts-to-address-worsening-water-shortages/-esSeguir leyendo →]]>The problem has been further complicated by a lack of comprehensive water supply data and monitoring systems which is making it harder to respond to the growing crisis.

“And yet the systems and data collection which underpin these vital services to society are under real pressure,", Añadió, underscoring that informed decision-making must be based on comprehensive facts and figures.

This sums up the key challenge underlying the agency’s HydroConference, taking place in Geneva from 7-9 Mayo, is seeking to address.

It brings together the full gamut of so-called “water stakeholders” – decision makers, meteorological and hydrological services; the private and academic sector; las organizaciones no gubernamentales, and UN entities – around the same table to coordinate efforts as well as leverage individual knowledge and collective expertise to maximum effect.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said it was important for all actors to cope with the scale of the challenges that lie ahead, citing the two extremes of droughts and floods.

“Effective flood and drought policies can be implemented only with data and models for assessing the frequency and magnitude of extreme events,", Dijo, adding that the same also holds for other goals related to water and its efficient use; including those in the 2030 Un programa de desarrollo sostenible.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) explicitly calls for sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Water is also a key component for other Goals including those on eliminating extreme poverty (SDG 1); as wells as Goal 2, to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, as well as Goal 13 on mitigating climate change.

What may well be the hottest temperature ever recorded for April, was registered this week in Pakistan, she added. A weather station in the city of Nawabshah registered 50.2 degrees Celsius on Monday; or 122.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

“This is April – not June and July – this is April,” she exclaimed. “We don’t normally see temperatures above 50 degrees: De hecho, as we’re aware, we’ve never seen a temperature above 50 degrees C in April.”

The record high reading, was under threat of being surpassed by a temperature recorded at a nearby weather station, in the same period of warm weather, and in more or less the same location.

The existing record of 17.5 degrees Celsius was recorded at the Argentine Research Base Esperanza, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, on 23 March.

The rival reading which, if verified, would have set a new record, was registered a day earlier in the same area, at an automatic weather station established by the Czech Republic on Davies Dome. But polar meteorology experts examined the data closely and made their long-awaited announcement on Friday that the existing record still stands.

What may well be the hottest temperature ever recorded for April, was registered this week in Pakistan, she added. A weather station in the city of Nawabshah registered 50.2 degrees Celsius on Monday; or 122.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

“This is April – not June and July – this is April,” she exclaimed. “We don’t normally see temperatures above 50 degrees: De hecho, as we’re aware, we’ve never seen a temperature above 50 degrees C in April.”

The record high reading, was under threat of being surpassed by a temperature recorded at a nearby weather station, in the same period of warm weather, and in more or less the same location.

The existing record of 17.5 degrees Celsius was recorded at the Argentine Research Base Esperanza, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, on 23 March.

The rival reading which, if verified, would have set a new record, was registered a day earlier in the same area, at an automatic weather station established by the Czech Republic on Davies Dome. But polar meteorology experts examined the data closely and made their long-awaited announcement on Friday that the existing record still stands.

“Every credible scientific source is telling us that these impacts will only get worse if we do not address climate change and it also tells us that our window of time for addressing it is closing very soon,", Añadió.

Second, she said, the international community must complete the Paris Agreement guidelines, or operating manual, to unleash the potential of the accord.

Third, conditions must be improved to enable countries to be more ambitious in determining their own national policies to slow down global warming.

At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP23) held last November under the leadership of Fiji, nations agreed to accelerate and complete their work to put in place the guidelines – officially known as the Paris Agreement Work Programme (PAWP) – at COP24 in Katowice, Poland next December.

At this Bonn meeting, which will run through 10 Mayo, Governments will start drafting texts to be finalized at COP24.

Finishing off the operating manual is also necessary to assess whether the world is on track to achieve the goals of the historic Paris Agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions, while pursuing efforts to keep the temperature rise to less than 1.5°C.

The contribution will go towards general operations, including assisting countries to meet targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the accord, agreed by 193 States in the French capital.

In late March, the United States Congress announced that it was cutting funding for this year to the UNFCCC by $4.5 millón; de $7.5 millón, down to $3 millón, according to a media release from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The UNFCCC’s Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, said that “when countries adopted the historic Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise, they also recognized that achieving that goal would take broad-based global climate action in all sectors, public and private.”

“I welcome this generous contribution from Bloomberg Philanthropies as an important, practical recognition of our need to work together and to step up our response to climate change,” she added.

]]>Climate chaos to continue in 2018, UN chief warns; Will the world rise to challenge?http://cranegroupintl.com/climate-chaos-to-continue-in-2018-un-chief-warns-will-the-world-rise-to-challenge/ Fri, 30 Mar 2018 01:00:56 +0000http://cranegroupintl.com/climate-chaos-to-continue-in-2018-un-chief-warns-will-the-world-rise-to-challenge/-esSeguir leyendo →]]>“Scientists are now worried that unless accelerated action is taken by 2020, the Paris goal may become unattainable,” the UN chief told reporters at the world body’s New York Headquarters.

La Acuerdo de París on climate change, adopted by world leaders in December 2015, aims to keep global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and pursues efforts to limit the temperature increase even further, a 1.5 degrees.

I am beginning to wonder how many more alarm bells must go off before the world rises to the challenge.

“I am beginning to wonder how many more alarm bells must go off before the world rises to the challenge,"El señor. Guterres said, noting that 2017 had been filled with climate chaos and 2018 has already brought more of the same.

“Climate change is still moving much faster than we are,” he warned, calling the phenomenon the greatest threat facing humankind.

Recent information from the World Meteorological Organization (OMM), the World Bank and the International Energy Agency shows the relentless pace of climate change.

Moreover, weather-related disasters caused some $320 billion in economic damage, making 2017 the costliest year ever for such losses.

In social as well as economic terms, la 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was devastating, washing away decades of development in an instant.

In South Asia, major monsoon floods affected 41 million people.

In Africa, severe drought drove nearly 900,000 people from their homes.

Wildfires caused destruction across the world. Arctic sea ice cover in winter is at its lowest level, and the oceans are warmer and more acidic than at any time in recorded history.

“This tsunami of data should create a storm of concern,"El señor. Guterres said, noting that next year he will convene a climate summit in New York aimed at boosting global ambition to meet the level of the climate challenge.

“The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones. It ended because there were better alternatives. The same applies today to fossil fuels,", Dijo, stressing the need for a further cut in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 25 per cent by 2020.

Responding to a question about the United States’ decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, Sr.. Guterres said he received information from his Special Envoy on climate change and former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, that there are expectations that the US – independently of the position of its Administration – might be able to meet the commitments made in Paris as a country due to the positive reactions of the American business community and local authorities.

“All around the world, the role of governments is less and less relevant. The role of the economy, the role of the society is more and more relevant,” he said.